Render an Rmarkdown document in the RStudio jobs pane.

render_with_jobs.R

render_with_jobs <- function(){
  rstudioapi::verifyAvailable()
  jobs_file <- tempfile(tmpdir = "/tmp", fileext = ".R")
  rmd_to_render <- rstudioapi::selectFile(caption = "Choose an Rmd file...",
                                          filter = "Rmd files (*.Rmd)")
  if (is.null(rmd_to_render)){
    stop("You must choose an Rmd file to proceed!")
  }
  cat(paste0('rmarkdown::render("', rmd_to_render, '")'), file = jobs_file)
  rstudioapi::jobRunScript(path = jobs_file,
                           name = basename(rmd_to_render),
                           workingDir = getwd())
  # Wait for 5 seconds so that the tmp file isn't deleted *before* the job
  # submission is complete
  Sys.sleep(5)
  file.remove(jobs_file)
}

For what it's worth, just confirmed that the render_with_jobs() function works for rendering Quarto (qmd) files as well. Not a big surprise since it users knitr though :-)

@sellorm When I run your code from 15 Apr 2021, on a Windows PC running R4.4.1 with RStudio 2024.04.2, I get the error "Error: '\U' used without hex digits in character string C:/Users/myname/AppData/Local/Temp/RtmpAnx41J/file20cc54305c20.R:2:12) Execution halted"
now, job_file = "C:\\Users\\myname\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\RtmpAnx41J\\file20cc5b2e3d96.R"
and rmd_path = "C:\\Users\\myname\\Documents\\R\\render_with_job.R"
and basename(rmd_path) = "render_with_job.R"
and dirname(rmd_path) = "C:/Users/myname/Documents/R"
I have tried multiple workarounds, and the only one that seems to make this function work, is when I set job_file = "temp_file.R" at the start of the function. So job_file is causing the problem, it seems.
I don't want to hard code in a file name for job_file as that would prevent multiple jobs being run concurrently, that each need their own, unique temporary filename.
I have tried replacing the \\ with / using this code:
path = stringr::str_replace_all(string = job_file, pattern = "\\\\", replacement = "/")
which gives "C:/Users/hop11527/AppData/Local/Temp/RtmpAnx41J/file20cc5b2e3d96.R"
But still the same error is returned.
I am now at a loss for how to resolve this error, without hard-coding in a filename for job_file.
Can anyone help at all?

@NevilHopley I've only ever seen this happen if you have some piece of code using the Windows "C:\Users..." style paths instead of "C:/Users/..." somewhere in your code. The error you're getting specifically highlights '\U' as being the problem, so if there's somewhere in your code where you've typed in "C:\Users...", make sure to swap it with the other slashes and try it again.